The Ministers of Agriculture of Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia held an online meeting today. They agreed that specific measures are needed on the part of the European Commission and that funding alone does not solve the problems of farmers in the wake of the war in Ukraine and the duty-free import of agricultural produce from Ukraine. 

The imbalance in the six countries is further exacerbated by the fact that subsidies are lower in the new EU member states, said caretaker Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Yavor Gechev, who represented Bulgaria at the meeting. The new harvest is coming soon, but farmers' warehouses are full of last year's produce. It also became clear at the meeting that Slovakia has halted processing 1,500 tonnes of wheat with proven levels of pesticides banned by the EU. Earlier this month, Hungary destroyed more than 29 tonnes of maize with toxins and GMOs, the ministry said.